Linux has long had a reputation as an operating system for programmers and power users of unique business applications across industries ranging from manufacturing to utilities to financial services. When Citrix first released Linux VDA support, our main mission was to enhance the user experience and boost user productivity.
That’s why we’re excited to announce the availability of Linux VDA 1903. Let’s take a look at what’s new.
Support for Ubuntu 18.04
Ubuntu is the world’s most popular open source OS for both development and deployment, from the data center to the cloud. Thousands of development teams around the world use it because of its versatility, reliability, constantly updated features, and extensive developer libraries.
That’s why one of the Citrix Linux VDA deployment use cases is to empower Linux developers in a virtualized environment with a compelling user experience. Starting with the 1903 release, Citrix Linux VDA adds Ubuntu 18.04 (see the screenshot below) into our Current Release supported platform. Now you have almost 20 distributions to serve your business requirements.
Support for Fast Smartcard
Fast smartcard support was introduced last year in Windows VDA. The benefit? Providing a superior user experience to smartcard users accessing their workspace environment over the WAN.
Smartcard customers running on Linux VDA for their business applications within vertical and industry requirements told us fast smartcard support was a feature parity they wanted.
We listened and are excited to announce that we have enabled fast smartcard support on Linux VDA 1903. It’s an improvement over the existing HDX PC/SC-based smart card redirection, significantly enhancing performance when smart cards are used in high-latency WAN situations. Check out the documentation for smartcard support.
ICA RTT Metrics for Linux Sessions Are Available in Citrix Director
End-to-end monitoring on virtual apps and desktops is always top of mind for Citrix IT admins. Measuring user experience in Linux virtual app or desktop session has become a routine task for IT administrators today.
A good indicator of user experience in virtual sessions is ICA Round Trip Time (RTT). But was does ICA-RTT mean? It’s the time that elapses from when you press a key until the response appears on the endpoint. It’s a common way to measure user experience in a remote virtual session.
One of Citrix’s top supportability solutions is a Windows tool called Connection Quality Indicator. With Linux VDA 1903, the ICA RTT metric of a Linux session can be displayed in Citrix Director, enhancing monitoring capabilities. See the screenshot below, and check out the documentation for more information.
And last but not least, Linux VDA 1903 now supports RHEL 7.6 and CentOS 7.6.
Try out these awesome new features by upgrading to Linux VDA 1903 today! Follow me on Twitter at @ChuXiaolu, and let us know in the comments below what you think of the latest Linux VDA enhancements.
